UnitedHealth leaves New Jersey’s PPACA exchange

(Bloomberg) — Oxford Health Plans, a unit of UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE:UNH), will pull out of New Jersey’s individual health insurance market in 2017.

See also: PPACA public exchange plans in New York seek to raise premiums by 17%

Oxford is leaving both New Jersey’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) public exchange, which is part of the HealthCare.gov exchange group, and the state’s off-exchange market, according to a letter obtained by Bloomberg through an open-records request.

Another UnitedHealth unit will continue selling plans outside of HealthCare.gov, and the company will continue to sell small-group coverage in New Jersey, according to Marshall McKnight, a spokesman for New Jersey’s Department of Banking & Insurance.

The list of other companies that now sell individual health coverage in New Jersey includes Oscar Insurance Corp., AmeriHealth, Health Republic Insurance of New Jersey and Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. 

Chief Executive Officer Stephen Hemsley said last month that UnitedHealth would offer individual public exchange plans in only a “handful of states” in 2017, though the company hasn’t listed them. The company is retreating from the public exchange system amid mounting losses on the policies. Bloomberg has confirmed that the insurer is pulling out of the exchange system in at least 27 of the 34 states in which it is now selling individual exchange plans.

The company has filed 2017 exchange plan issuer applications in New York, Nevada and Virginia. 

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